Review: Wind force 10: Koksijde Rescue (2006)

Director: Hans Herbots | 117 minutes | adventure | Actors: Kevin Janssens, Veerle Baetens, Ludo Busschots, Koen de Bouw, Stan van Samang, Jelle Cleymans, Warre Borgmans, Tine Reymer, Vic de Wachter, Axel Daeseleire, Gert Winckelmans, François Beukelaars

“Windkracht 10” was the name of a successful Flemish television series from the end of the 90s. This series, a fine combination of soap, drama and action, dealt with the personal and professional adventures of the crew members of a flying rescue brigade. That brigade kept an eye on the coast and responded to emergencies at sea. Nearly ten years later, there is a feature film about the same rescue brigade, albeit with an almost entirely new crew. “Windforce 10: Koksijde Rescue” is the name of this renewed acquaintance, and that is a title that does not win any prizes.

Unfortunately, the title is not the main problem of this movie. The transformation from television series to feature film turns out to be no picnic. Because the length has to be stretched and the soap element is missing – this simply requires several episodes – the scenario should contain a little more pepper. In this case, you would expect more extreme rescue operations and personal relationships that are sharpened. “Wind force 10: Koksijde Rescue” unfortunately keeps it to relatively small-scale rescue operations with a relatively insignificant effort.

In addition, the mutual confrontations between the crew members lack the necessary sharpness and because of the good-humored tone you don’t have to worry about how these adventures will end. Even more annoying is that the film never deviates from the beaten track. Neither story nor characters have an ounce of originality, which makes “Windforce 10: Koksijde Rescue” predictable to the extreme. In addition, the humor is often of the corny kind and you just have to feel like it. Yet it is far too far to immediately dispose of “Wind force 10: Koksijde Rescue” with the bulky waste.

Cinematographically, the film is of great class (with a nice trendy color palette) and the actors also deliver the best work. Warre Borgmans excels in his much too small role as CO and Veerle Baetens also does it nicely as the attractive Alex (half vamp, half pit bull). In addition, the action scenes, although sometimes drawn out for too long, have enough tension to keep the spectator awake. With this, “Windkracht 10: Koksijde Rescue” has become a film that is qualitatively somewhat on the edge. The form is okay, the content little or no.

Nevertheless, this film is a relief compared to the screaming mess that we have welcomed from Flanders in recent years (check “The Kiss” or “Jam” and feel free to cry along). Just a little more guts, then next time the flag can really fly on the beach of Koksijde.